Invasive Species Management

Invasive Species 101 Webinar Series

Join us for a 4 session speaker series to inform landowners on invasive species terminology, identification, treatment, and latest trends.

April 7 – Intro to Integrated Pest Management, Steve Sauer, Boulder County Weeds Supervisor, Boulder County Parks and Open Space

April 21 – Weed Identification and Management, Casey Cisneros, District Manager, Larimer County Weed District

May 5 - Colorado’s Aquatic Nuisance Species, Robert Walters, Invasive Species Specialist, Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Register

March 24 Presentation Slides (PDF 6MB)

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Take Our Survey

Help Jeffco ISM provide residents with the information they need to manage noxious weeds and to gauge how our efforts are doing.

Take the survey now

Need Noxious Weed Advice?

We are not able to provide site visits in 2020 but are monitoring calls and questions. See our contact information on the right-hand side of this page.

What We Do

The Jefferson County Invasive Species Management program provides education and outreach to help Jeffco residents learn to identify and manage noxious weeds, forest insect pests and agricultural vertebrate pests.  Our goal is to provide the public with information and offer solutions that they can use to manage their weed and pest problems.

We ensure the compliance with Colorado’s noxious weed, forest pest, and agricultural vertebrate pest regulations on private, county, and state lands.  We also provide technical assistance and support to county departments who are responsible for managing county owned lands.

The program coordinates with private, local, state, and federal agencies to achieve regional pest control.

Who We Are

Our staff includes the Invasive Species Management Coordinator and limited summer help.

Cuckoo-PennState

Bee of the Month - April 2021

Each month we will feature a bee profile.  There are 100’s of species of native bees in Jeffco.  Bees support many ecological processes but often go unnoticed.  

Cuckoo Bee

by Liam Cullinane, former Jeffco  ISM Specialist

Photo credit: Penn State Extension

Nomada is a genus of bees that includes over 850 species worldwide. They are some of the most unique bees in terms of appearance and behavior. Bees in this genus are very colorful, ranging from red, to yellow, to black, to metallic or any combination of those. Their wings are also very distinct with a smoky glean near the tops and tips of the wing. Nomada species vary greatly in appearance but are some of the hardest bees to identify to species, and new species are still being discovered and described. 

These bee species also lack hairs that are a common feature of bees. Because of this, their appearance is similar to wasps, and they are often misidentified as such. In addition to their unique appearance, Nomada species also have a unique life history. 

They are parasites of other bee species and have the common name cuckoo bees. They do not provision nests, which is why they are known as nomadic bees (in Latin, Nomada). These bees will travel around looking for their host bee species foraging on flowers. Once they locate them, they follow them back to their nest and lay eggs in the nest of the host bee. The eggs of the cuckoo bee hatch first, and if the adult bee had not already eaten the larvae of the host bee, the newly hatched cuckoo bee will do so. 

Many bee species in the Andrena and Agapostemon genera are hosts of Nomada species. Bees in this genus are active when their host bees are active, so many of them emerge in the early spring. Be sure to look out for them lurking on early flowering shrubs and trees.



Weed of the Month

Each month we will feature a noxious weed to help landowners identify weeds they may encounter on their property.

Saltcedar

Saltcedar

Tamarix chinensis and T. ramosissima

Saltcedar, also known as Tamarisk, was introduced into the United States in the 1800’s.  Saltcedar was planted as an ornamental, to stabilize riverbanks and also as a windbreak.  Saltcedar has displaced native vegetation on approximately 1.6 million acres of land.  Seedlings can survive flooding and drought.  This species secretes salt at a high rate on the ground surface and into the soil.  This inhibits native plants from growing in its vicinity.  

This plant is a deciduous shrub or small tree.  Petals and sepals are arranged in groups of five, they are mostly pink, sometimes white.  The plants flower anytime between April and August. The leaves are small, scale-like and bluish-green in color.   

Salt cedar reproduces by seed (up to 600,000 a year) and vegetatively 

Integrated management techniques include chemical, mechanical and biocontrol.   


RESOURCES

RiversEdge West

USDA Saltcedar Field Guide

Colorado Department of Agriculture


A Landowner's Guide

Developing a Noxious Weed Management Plan

LG_NoxWeed_2020_cover Opens in new window

Download your copy

Weed Spotter

The Weed Spotter program is a citizen science based effort to detect 6 high priority species on Jeffco Open Space parks.  Learn more at our Citizen Science page.

yellow_flag_iris

Invasive Species 101 Webinar Series

Join us for a 4 session speaker series to inform landowners on invasive species terminology, identification, treatment, and latest trends.

April 7 – Intro to Integrated Pest Management, Steve Sauer, Boulder County Weeds Supervisor, Boulder County Parks and Open Space

April 21 – Weed Identification and Management, Casey Cisneros, District Manager, Larimer County Weed District

May 5 - Colorado’s Aquatic Nuisance Species, Robert Walters, Invasive Species Specialist, Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Register

March 24 Presentation Slides (PDF 6MB)

myrtle-spurge-flower-2011